Food Safety and Security Monitoring Project Project Summary/Abstract A primary focus of the Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services (DCLS) analytical testing is the monitoring of food products to ensure a safe supply for public consumption. Under this application, and in pursuit of this goal, personnel trained in the analysis of food matrices for the detection of toxins would continue to provide analytical support with sample analysis in the event of large scale food adulteration events. In addition, participation in ongoing matrix validation and proficiency testing by gas (GC/MS), liquid (LC/MS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP/MS) will continue to refine staff member skills and improve the laboratories abilities to respond to food emergencies. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay analysis of food matrices for ricin will also be pursued, to expand our capabilities in this technique. The analytical expertise developed by these activities will provide the basis for the enhancement of current methodology by expanding LC/MS toxin screens to compounds that partition into the water phase, such as the contact herbicides diquat and paraquat. The analysis of melamine and its analogs will also be evaluated by LC/MS with automated Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) to increase sample throughput. A further area of study will be the investigation of Solid Phase MicroExtraction (SPME) for the detection of polyaromatic hydrocarbons in marine tissue.